Corpus of Aberystwyth English

Corpus of Aberystwyth English as a corpus I started collecting in 2012. At the moment, it is based on 54 speakers from Aberystwyth and includes the following:

factual short interviews with most speakers

extensive word list data focusing on phonetics and phonology for all speakers

Cinderella reading passage for seven speakers

sociolinguistic interviews lasting 1-2 hours (at the moment for 6 speakers; this section is being collected)

Some transcription is available, but it is limited at the moment.

The quality of most of the recordings is very high (H4 Zoom Handy recorder and Marantz PMD661 in conjunction with AKG C520 head-mounted microphone; sampling rate at 41.1 kHz).

Why Aberystwyth?

Because most studies of Welsh English focus on the north of Wales, or on the south.

Because mid-Wales may be very interesting, being in between the north and the south of the country.

Because there is a high number of Welsh speakers.

Because it is practical for my fieldwork as I happen to have many contacts in the town and its surroundings.

Because I am extremely fond of the place.

Most of my informants have agreed I can use the data to compile a corpus of Aberystwyth English available to other researchers. For most of these speakers, I have also collected information about their family background, their professional life, their attitudes towards Welsh, etc., via the factual interviews. A very detailed spreadsheet is being prepared.

Other Welsh Englishes

I have also recorded an extensive word list and short factual interviews with 45 speakers from other parts of Wales (Bridgend, Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli, Neath, Llanon in the South as well as Llanon in Ceredigion, Caerphilly, Cardigan, Aberaeron, Trawsgoed, Llandysul, Oakford, Ffairfach, Goginan, Llanbrynmair, Llangeithio, Llangybi, Peniel, Ynys-y-bwl, Ystrad, Caernarfon, Mold, Anglesey). For 1/5, transcription exists in form of Praat textgrids.

Fieldwork stars

There are three technical stars of my fieldwork: H4 Zoom, AKG MicroMic C520, Marantz PMI 661, and often also my recording mug. All the speakers happy to volunteer and all the people helping me out to get in touch with speakers and use various buildings to do the recording are the biggest stars of all!